Happy Thanksgiving from Moonlight Ridge

Thanksgiving Day came, cold and bright. Our little kitchen was crowded and cozy, everything smelled right spicy, and everybody was in a holiday mood, talking and laughing over the delicious feast.

Recipes from
"The Witches of Moonlight Ridge"

Hoppin’ John

½ pound bacon, diced

1 medium onion, chopped

2 stalks celery, chopped

2 cloves garlic

1 tsp chopped parsley

Black-eyed peas, cooked and drained

Salt to taste (1 tsp salt for 2 cups dried black-eyed peas)

Cooked white rice

Sauté diced bacon, chopped onion, and chopped celery until onion and celery look translucent. Drain grease. Add garlic, parsley, and cooked black-eyed peas, simmer until peas are tender but not mushy.

In a large pot or bowl, gently combine peas and cooked rice, or serve peas separately over mounds of cooked rice.

Note: Before cooking dried black-eyed peas, sort through them thoroughly for tiny pebbles or other debris, then rinse and drain.

Note: Cooked ham, chopped, can be used in place of bacon. 

Raisin Biscuits

2 ½ cups unbleached self-rising flour

1 egg (optional)

Small pinch of salt

1/3 cup butter

¾ cup milk

1 tbsp unbleached sugar

1 ½ cups raisins

Preheat oven to 450°.

Sift together flour, pinch of salt, sugar. Cut butter into the flour mixture. Beat egg and add to the milk, stir into flour/sugar mixture. Add raisins. Turn onto well floured board, knead gently, using more flour if necessary for a smooth dough. Cut with small biscuit cutter and bake at 450° for approximately 15 minutes.

Persimmon Pudding

3 cups persimmons

2 cups buttermilk

1 stick plus 1 tablespoon unsalted butter

1 ½ cups unbleached sugar

3 eggs

1 ½ cups unbleached all purpose flour

½ tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda 1 tsp cinnamon

½ tsp nutmeg ½ tsp ginger

Preheat oven to 350° F. Grease a 4 x 8 x 12 inch pan with 1 tbsp butter.

Puree 3 cups persimmons, which will yield 2 cups puree. Combine puree with buttermilk. Beat stick of butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time. In a large mixing bowl, stir the puree into the butter/sugar/eggs.

Sift all dry ingredients together and fold them into the persimmon mixture. Fill baking pan with mixture, place the pan into a larger pan and fill the larger pan halfway with warm water.

Bake uncovered for 1 ¼ hours or until the pudding is firm in the center and has pulled away from the sides of the pan, and a knife inserted into the center of the pudding comes out clean.

Serve hot with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

How to puree persimmons: Remove skins from ripe persimmons. Persimmons can be mashed through a colander, and seeds will be removed and left in colander. If using a food processor, remove seeds before processing.